For most, browser compatibility is seen as an annoyance on web projects – and hardly surprising given the emergence of HTML5 and CSS3, and the far-too-hasty adopting of standards still considered experimental. In term of HTML5/CSS3, Chrome supports them best – but how often is that a required browser? Although losing ground, Internet Explorer is the most heavily used – especially within companies.
More often than not, IE is the browser of choice for requirements, and sometimes Firefox. Throw in IE6, and you will find that after all the detection work is done, barely any of your nice HTML5/CSS3 will be viewable to very few your intended audience. When deciding on technologies, web browser requirements need to be outlined, justified and confirmed, along with such considerations whether mobile-compatibility should be included. Take a look at this HTML5/CSS3 test page in your current browser – it does a simple check for common HTML5 and CSS3 elements.
Don’t under-estimate how much development can be wasted, trying to navigate issue that newer technologies always present. The more intelligence you have to put into detection, the more complex and bloated your code can become. It’s not the end of the world if you have to use javascript instead of HTML5 to display videos, or rounded corner images instead of the CSS3 styling elements. If necessary these things can be updated at later date, but to make the scope of browser support too large, or ignore the requirements in order to use latest “toys”, you will be dealing with a monster.
Observe good standards for (X)HTML and CSS, and you will find a lot of those common issues go right away. As well as helping you towards attaining basic WCAG 2.0 Level A with ease. Be smart in your design as well – plenty of websites are ruined by designers and marketing failing to observe same standards as the rest of development team. I find myself feeling like a right bore, harping on about code quality, but why? Is bad code considered acceptable? When you word it like that, no-one will agree bad code is acceptable. Unfortunately people largely judge web application quality by purely what they see on screen.
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